US newspaper to charge website commenters. ⇒
14 July 2010, late morning
The paper plans to charge a one-time 99 cents fee to post a comment. You pay via credit-card, and the name on the card is the name that will appear when you comment. I hope other papers follow this lead. I think it would get rid of the vast majority of stupidness that litters most newspaper comment sections. People probably won’t be so straight-up racist/homophobic/bigoted if their name sits right next to their screed.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
heh. And yet when Blizzard wanted to do the same with their messageboards (tie everything to real names), people flipped out.
by Weiguo on July 14 2010, 11:56 am #
The best articulation of why that was a bad idea for Blizzard was a comment on MetaFilter. It’s not quite the same scenario as a news web site.
by ramanan on July 14 2010, 1:38 pm #
Paki.
by NYT LVR on July 14 2010, 2:49 pm #
God damn it, Rishi. This is why we can't have nice things.
by ramanan on July 14 2010, 2:53 pm #
I see them both as trying to force people to behave in public by forcing them to be accountable (they’re named, forever) when posting. I don’t think the topic of discussion (whether news or a game) really makes a difference. And I think the arguments in that MetaFilter post apply equally to a newspaper’s website?
by Weiguo on July 14 2010, 4:59 pm #